"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant."Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme

Traps in the way of financial fair play

We have been arguing for some time that financial fair play will not be easy to implement and enforce, but it is good to have the president of Juventus make a similar point.

He questions how far Uefa would be willing to undermine the value of their own lucrative competition by expelling three teams, including Chelsea and Manchester City. Of course, football authorities are quite capable of shooting themselves in the foot, especially if they think that an issue of principle is involved. They might also 'encourager les autres' by making an example of just one club.

However, if they did that they would be even more open to a legal challenge which has always been the vulnerability of this plan. Neverrtheless, it is already entering into the calculations made by clubs, but its impact may be slower than many clubs such as Arsenal would like.

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"A fine independent web page that follows business developments in football can be found at Charlton fan Wyn Grant's regularly updated Political Economy of Football,.."Ian Plenderleith - When Saturday Comes magazine